In an attempt to sort out the surge in untrained foreign teachers – both native and non-native English speakers – working in the country’s burgeoning language school industry, the Vietnam government has announced its own teacher training initiative, according to a report from VnExpress.
On 8 December, the Ministry of Education revealed its plans to open up training programmes for both native and non-native speakers with a first degree in English. The courses will be designed to help ‘trainees develop English teaching skills effectively and flexibly, and in accordance with the culture and context of Vietnam’ followed by a 160 hour unpaid internship at a local language school. No details on either the length or cost of the course was given.
Teachers in the country’s private language schools system have reacted with a degree of cynicism, with one commenting ‘and who will be leading these sessions? … It’s the blind leading the blind.’ Another complained that the 160 hour internship was ‘basically unpaid labour.’
But the main problem may still be the lack of candidates in a country still seeing a major teacher shortage in its language schools, especially those opening outside the country’s major cities and tourist areas. As one commentator wrote on the site ‘first you must be able to attract foreign teachers, but they ain’t coming.’
